“Good Morning Vietnam” reissue worth it for Williams’ raw monologues

In 1988, I was a public affairs specialist/journalist for the Army on Okinawa, Japan. At our local Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) radio station, also known as the Far East Network (FEN), they were short-handed in the radio section. So I volunteered to serve as weekend disc jockey on the from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m.

Now I know the truism that “you never volunteer” for anything in the Army. But this was one of the times that volunteering paid off. I played canned shows from 8 to 11 p.m., and usually turned the broadcast over to a ball game at 3 a.m. (we were quite a bit off the time zones in Japan). But from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., I was live.

We had a library of AFRTS records dating back to the 50s, arranged in chronological order and catalogued by index cards. The daytime DJs were limited to mostly playing the current Top 40, but the midnight guy could play anything in the library. I was playing mostly to the troops who had to work the flight lines on weekend nights and the cabbies ferrying the folks home from the clubs, but I loved it.

And that’s where I noticed a disparity between fact and fiction. According to “Good Morning Vietnam,” which had just come out in the theaters, AFRTS disc jockey Adrian Cronauer was chastised for playing “unauthorized” rock and roll records. But there were plenty of 1966 rock cuts on the AFRTS discs in the library. I’m sure that somebody was playing them.

I’ve also seen the real Adrian Cronauer give a lecture at the military’s Defense Information School. And I can vouch for this: he’s no Robin Williams. He was funny, and he did play rock and roll, but he wasn’t the manic character that is portrayed in the film.

Now Disney/Touchstone has released a “Special Edition” of “Good Morning Vietnam.” Sadly, it’s lacking a commentary track or any interviews with the manic Williams, but it’s a good edition nonetheless.

The 34-minute “Production Diary” section has old interviews with director Barry Levinson, actors Bruno Kirby (Lt. Hauk) and Robert Wuhl (SSgt. Marty Dreiwitz); and some newer interviews with writer Mitch Markowitz. They talk about the heat in Thailand where the film was shot, being able to improvise with their characters.

Markowitz tells an interesting story about how studios were horrified that they wanted to make a comedy about Vietnam; and he makes the point that “Good Morning, Vietnam” was never intended to be a comedy. It’s a serious drama with a comic subject.

The real Cronauer also appears in the interviews; he talks about how he never had any of the dramatic events of the film happen to him, and how his lecture audiences still ask him those questions. He also talks about the origin of the “Good Morning Vietnam” sign-on, and how it continued with the morning guys even after he left in 1967.

There were always rumors that Levinson had simply loaded the cameras and given Williams some general facts, then turned him loose and selected 12 minutes of the best material out of four hours worth of improvisation. Included on this disc is 12 minutes of raw footage, showing Williams trying out different angles on the facts. Finally audiences can see how they were refined into what does appear in the film. It’s a great look at Williams’ gift for shaping material, and the best reason to buy this “Special Edition.”